Evil Needle is a producer from Grand Est, France. He’s been releasing music for over a decade now, and in that time he’s worked with everyone form OSHUN to Sivey. His most recent project, L’Emprise, came out in the fall of 2021. Now he’s back with a beat tape for Chillhop done in collaboration with Misha.

Misha is a producer with roots in Ukraine, but now based in Helsinki. He put out his debut single, “Feel,” on Chllhop in 2018. Since that time, he’s done a lot of collaborative singles and smaller projects, most recently working with cocabona and J.Lamotta on the single, “No problem,” which came out on Chillhop last fall. In listening to this beat tape, you can see what brought these two producers together, as they lay down six tracks of smooth R&B, electro-boogie, old school hip hop, and some electronic music. What’s especially fun and interesting about this project is that the vibe feels very warm and relaxed, with a little bit of sultriness to it as well. In these cold months with shorter days, it feels like a nice escape to listen to something that feels like an ideal sunny day where you’re hanging out with a special someone without any particular place to be. Misha and Evil Needle do this by not just creating some nice grooves, but finding these interesting connecting points across these subgenres, and developing and sequencing the project well so that even though it’s all downtempo, it’s always moving, never getting stale. When you do this kind of work, you can get music that feels effortless to listen to, and you’ll be transported to that sunny day in the not-too-distant future.

Chillhop beat tapes have put out some interesting projects in the past, but this release from Evil Needle and Misha have to be towards the top. They now how to throw down some tasty R&B grooves that are warm and sophisticated, and they do a great job in letting you escape into their soundscape for a short vacation.